AuthorTopic: Battery 3 (Read 21539 times)

Just got Battery 3 the other day. Installation took a while (two DVD's worth of samples!), and I had no problem with activation.

I've been going through the Battery 3 samples sets...and all I can say is that I'm BLOWN AWAY. Native Instruments did an outstanding job. I've particularly been impressed with the world percussion samples. I spent 20 minutes just playing the Asian gongs, water gongs, tam-tams, temple bowls, etc. Incredible!

I haven't heard BFD so can't compare...but after hearing Battery 3, I can only say that the "quality curve" is definitely flattening out. We've reached a point where improvements in any given sample set or software will be very, very small—because they're outstanding already! A few years back, I thought the HandSonic set a new standard for percussion samples...but Battery 3's samples surpass the HandSonic by far.

Now I'm DYING to get my Zendrum...which hopefully will ship this coming week! Together with Battery 3, I'm just buzzin' with the potential!

Scott

« Last Edit: January 27, 2008, 02:02:26 PM by SWriverstone »

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For the record, I was wrong what I said before in this thread about the number of multisamples in Battery 3. Many of the kits are multisampled with MANY more than three to five samples - so the quality in this sense is higher than my previous post might suggest.

I thought I'd add to this thread now that I've had the chance to work with Battery 3 for several weeks (with the Zendrum).

Overall, I still think it's a great app and a fantastic sample set. I've found a few minor glitches that are annoying, but that's it---they don't really have any impact on using it as a sound source. Annoying glitches include...

- You can select all cells in the grid (Ctrl+A)...but you can't deselect them. WTF??? The developers just whiffed on this one, LOL. So if you select all cells, the only way to deselect them is to load a different kit, then reload the one you were working on. The workaround is just don't select ALL cells.

- The File > Save dialog boxes are messed-up and annoying. For example, if you've made changes to a file and save those changes, if you then try to close the file you'll be nagged "Are you SURE you want to close without saving changes?" HELLO!!! I just saved my changes! (The software seems blissfully unaware that you just saved your file.)

- Though holding the Shift key allows you to adjust knobs with greater control, it still doesn't give you fine enough control in my opinion. It's still difficult sometimes to set a nice round decibel number (like -6dB)...you end with -6.2dB (you can just type it in, but I've always found the knobs faster/easier).

So far my only gripe that affects performance with the Zendrum is that Battery 3's velocity curve control is pretty skimpy. I've never understood why apps like this don't give you the ability to create multi-point velocity curves (so you can have a curve with "plateaus" along it like a good EQ).

But that's about it! Overall, I'm loving it. The samples continue to amaze, particularly the percussion samples. My impression is that BFD gets a lot of attention in this forum. Though I haven't had the chance to play it yet, I've listened to the sample demos online, and heard nothing I thought was better than anything in Battery 3. But I've also heard that BFD's multisampling is superior.

As I've said elsewhere in the forum, I mainly use the Zendrum with percussion ensemble sounds, not traditional drumkits. I like setups that allow me to play gamelan or gyilli and balafon. Battery 3 excels in these instrument samples. But I have a feeling I'm an "outcast" in this regard, LOL (in that I don't really use the Zendrum for drumkit playing). From what I've read here, if you're primarily a drumkit player, you might be better off with BFD...but Battery 3 still has several excellent drumkits as well.

Scott

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In Battery 3, you can de-select all cells by clicking on the small control in the lower left corner of the cell grid. One click will select all, another click will de-select all. No idea why CTRL-A doesn't toggle this way.

I just got Battery 3 running on my Receptor this weekend. It actually runs faster and better on the Receptor than it does on my G4 Mac Powerbook. Kits load noticeably faster, and stuff that overtaxed the old Mac runs just fine on Receptor. The install was a non-trivial all-out geeky tweakfest, involving obtaining root access on the Receptor and messing with the registry. But man oh man, I sure am happy. I can get several instances of BFD and Battery 3 going at the same time. Using a MIDI control surface, I can switch between kits with faders or combine them in interesting ways, add a bit of compression or reverb. Playing several drum sets in unison - never did that before.

ghostman74

I've used both as a stand alone and plug-in in Cubase and Ableton Live. I like both for different reasons.

I like BFD for the realism that the kits have. The BFD kits are truly expressive on the Zendrum. If fact, if I'm wanting to show off the difference between my ZX, KORG padKONTROL, and M-Audio Trigger Finger, the first thing I pull out is BFD and show off the expressiveness of both the ZX and BFD. The kits have a multi-sample (multi-layering) that really makes them incredible.

Having said that, I keep going back to Battery 3 day-after-day because of the need for setting up kits that include a core set of drums and cymbals, then a few ethnic pieces. Set up of custom kits is really intuitve in Battery to me. While you would think that a visual representation like you have in BFD would be more intuitive, it just wasn't to me. The main reason is because for anything beyond a basic kit, (e.g. five toms instead of three, or adding a small rack of temple blocks) the visual representation just isn't there and the intuitiveness is lost. Yes, Battery 3 seems to be great for tweaking, too. In BFD, the controls are easy, especially if you are changing setups between songs. Intuitive sliders and dials make it easy to change the character or tone of a particular instrument. In Battery 3, you have to do a few more clicks, but you have more things to tweak was you get there. I typically tweak until I get the sound I like, then save it off as a setup. It makes it easy to switch between setups from song to song.

Do I recommend Battery 3? You bet. It's never failed me.

Do I recommend BFD 1.x? You bet. It has the best sounding samples for drum kits and the few percussion pieces in the B.O.M.B. and Percussion expansion sets. There is also a new expansion set called Japanese Taiko Percussion for BFD 2.1 which I'm excited about.

I'm thinking I'll probably end up upgrading to BFD 2.1 with a few more expansion kits than I have. Then I will push BFD and Battery out to a set of SM Pro V-Machines or a set of Muse Receptors 2 Pros. Depending on what you're trying to do, one or the other is probably more appropriate. I play a lot of experimental Jazz so having a lot of wild percussion samples and being able to add my own is important thus I keep turning back to Battery 3 as my main virtual instrument. Your results may vary.

« Last Edit: January 31, 2009, 09:45:11 PM by ghostman74 »

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Hello there Ghostman - read your post with interest. If you try out or get an SM Pro V-machine, please let us all know how that goes, they look like promising units. I have heard that BFD 2 doesn't work on Receptor (though BFD 1.5 runs well). I'm curious - why would you get a pair of V-Machines or Receptors, rather than just one?

Are you guys still using bat 3? Haven't seen much of it on this forum I have had it for a while now and just haven't gotten around to exploring it.I am going to put it on a vista 64 bit laptop Any suggestions? comments? etc..............

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Sorry I missed your post - I'm definitely using Battery 3 - I've got several exotic percussion setups going on Battery3 that I'm very fond of - bass/taikos with finger cymbals for HH, claves & woodblocks, gongs - great stuff. There's a new Battery version out for download relatively recently that you'll want to get if you haven't already.